The Communist Party will pick China’s new leadership next year in a once-a-decade shuffle that includes membership in the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. Speculation is picking up, particularly as top party leaders hold important central committee meetings this week, and China watchers are eyeing all sorts of signs — particularly state-run media coverage — for hints about the jockeying.

So a front-page article in the Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily on Monday, extolling cultural development in the southern province of Guangdong, has earned some note. It appeared to be an effort by supporters to promote provincial party secretary Wang Yang as a candidate to join the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, analysts said.

The article comes as the party’s top brass are deliberating how to manage an increasingly complex Chinese society, where the Internet and particularly popular social-networking websites like Sina Corp.’s Weibo are leading citizens to air out grievances with the government at an unprecedented pace and scale.

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Mr. Wang is seen by analysts as among the most liberal of China’s potential standing committee members. He’s often portrayed in contrast with conservative Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, whose throwback “red” campaigns and crackdown on crime in the sprawling western metropolis have won him popular support. Some analysts see Mr. Wang as having just an outside chance to join the standing committee.

A front-page People’s Daily article about cultural development in Guangdong just as the party’s attention is focused on the issue could be a way for Mr. Wang to kick-start his campaign. While rising Communist Party leaders don’t typically campaign outwardly for promotions, state- and party-run media coverage of the contenders has long been among the most effective barometers of a potential leader’s political clout.

“At this moment, nothing is certain,” said Bo Zhiyue, an expert on Chinese political elites at the National University of Singapore. As the party debates cultural management during party central committee meetings, Mr. Wang is making a statement, saying “I should be on a higher profile this time around…This is actually a great opportunity for him to do that,” Mr. Bo said.

The third paragraph of the People’s Daily story mentions Mr. Wang by name, and quotes him saying that the people should be “both rich of pocket and rich of brain.”

The Communist Party’s 12th Five-Year Plan, which runs through 2015, places a focus on improving citizens’ livelihood, and the government has indicated it will emphasize a more sustainable economic growth model. Ascending leaders across the country are eager to show higher quality economic growth. That’s in stark contrast with previous years, where impressive GDP growth numbers were most important, irrespective of social and environmental costs.

Guangdong, with its massive population of migrant factory workers and significant wealth gap, is a challenging region to manage, and multiple instances of violent unrest in recent months there could reflect poorly on Mr. Wang. In June, severe rioting broke out in the city of Zengcheng after a pregnant migrant street vendor was pushed to the ground by security guards as they attempted to remove her food stall from the street.

Positive coverage of Mr. Wang in official media has often been overshadowed by Mr. Bo. Last Tuesday, the People’s Daily ran a lengthy front-page article on cultural development in Chongqing, which analysts at the time said was an endorsement of Mr. Bo’s red-culture campaigns. (Mr. Bo’s “red” populist campaign has received extensive coverage in this newspaper as well.)

Mr. Wang’s message has consistently been more sober than Mr. Bo’s and his larger-than-life persona. Ahead of the party’s 90th anniversary celebration this summer, Mr. Wang’s said in a speech: The Chinese people “must not let our numerical achievements disguise problems that exist, and must not allow development achievements to paralyze our consciousness.”

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